Merry Christmas

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year.

Good to the last drop

I have decided that I am going to ask Maxwell house if Aiden can be there new spokesperson...

Hi Mommy!

Sunday morning, I went to get Aiden out of his crib and this was what I walked in on (with the light off)...

So can you guess what I did Sunday afternoon......moved the mattress down.

Christmas at the Shus

We are about 95% done decorating, the tree is decorated, the stockings are hung by the fire with care, and the front yard looks like an airport landing strip. So I don't think Santa will have any problems leaving choo-choos by the thousands for Jonah or the deluxe super duper wagon for Aiden (Santa, please put the wagon together before you leave it and don't forget the batteries).

This year I am really looking forward to seeing Jonah's reaction to Santa's deliveries. We are not putting any presents under the tree until Christmas eve after the boys go to bed. Last Christmas, I think Jonah was still to young to understand what presents actually were and that he needed to unwrap them. He sis really well with his birthday presents and hopefully he remebers that Christmas morning.

This year. mom will be staying with us Christmas eve and will be here in the morning to see the boys open their gifts. I am so happy and excited about this. I am kinda hoping that she does not have to work Christmas eve and then she will get to spend more time with the boys.

This past Monday we went to dinner with Julie and then to Joann fabrics to pick out material for the boys stockings. It did not take me that long to make them but I found four fabrics for Aidens and two (including Thomas) for Jonah. Here they are:

So the boys have had their first official fight...

On Sat., Jonah received his first realization that Aiden was able to get around and this is exactly what it looked like.

I think Aiden won.

Ok, please hold the applause

I have officially finished Aiden's quilt. Yeah!!! This is officially my first complete quilt and I think it turned out pretty good. There are a couple oops and toe-catchers, but I think it gives it a more home-made look. :)

The Front (top)

The Back

I am washing it now, then to the dryer it will go and then it will be wrapped up for Christmas.

I have some Christmas fabric and I am not sure yet what I am going to do with it, but I wanted to show it off to you...

PIctures, Pictures, Get Your Pictures Here!

I decided that I needed to add some more pictures of the boys, since it has been a while since I last posted some.

Aiden's Idea of Thanksgiving

Finally a good quite bath

A pro at the popcorn bowl.

Dirty

He is such a boy.

You caught me.

Yeah they finally scored.

Thanksgiving was great and no trips to the hospital.

Making dinner and having everyone at our house was not a stressful as I thought it would be. I did a lot of prep work on Wednesday night, like cutting the veggies, making the relish, and laying out pans. Thursday morning, I washed, dressed and cooked the bird; prepared the green bean casserole and cooked the mac & cheese (so when the bird was done, they could go in) and did the dishes. Then headed to pick up my mom from the other side of town (it takes about 1 ½ round trip to get to her house and back). I had Josh put the casserole and mac & cheese in the oven; they were done when we got back. Julie brought the cornbread stuffing, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie and relish tray. Everything was ready to eat at 1:30 and we had a lot of food for only 5 people. Jonah was only into the rolls and strawberry jam and Aiden wanted whatever would get close to his or your mouth. He thinks he can just eat anything these days.

Giving Thanks

Since today is Thanksgiving, I decided that I should follow in tradition and state what we are thankful for:
Each other
Jonah and Aiden
Our parents, siblings, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents (yes, all of them)
Our friends
Our home
God and church
Thomas the train (this is for Jonah and me too)
Work and Josh being able to be with the boys
So what are you thankful for?

Josh will you say grace…”Grace, she died 30 years ago…”

Well turkeys, dressing, and extra pounds are upon us and this year Thanksgiving is at our house. Which is great, we want to start holiday traditions in our new home with the boys. I have been searching and planning a meal that Jen can have everything that is offered. So here is our menu:
1- 16 lb turkey (Did you know that Butterball turkeys are not gluten free?? Who would have thunked it.)
Mashed potatoes
Gluten-free cornbread stuffing (dressing if you get that technical)
Green bean casserole without the Frenchs onions, but with Funyuns
Deviled eggs
Gravy made with cornstarch
Grandma Whitmore’s cranberry and orange relish
Crust-free pumpkin pie (for Jen and John)
So, what are you having and can I come over??? I might have a drumstick or two bring over…

What hectic lives you have...

The past couple of weeks have been extremely hectic with Josh being gone so much. He left for San Diego on Thurs. the 6th, then got home LATE Tues. the 10th, then left for the QCs on Sat. the 15th, came home at 3am on Mon. the 17th, then left Mon. afternoon to go back to the QCs, and we finally got home last night. Seriously, no wonder the boys were missing him. The boys were staying with my mom while she was on vacation and I think she greatly enjoyed that. I was leaving in the mornings around 6:15 and then would get back home between 7:30-8 pm (or just in time to go back to bed). What a tiring week.

Since he has been gone and I have barely had enough time to even think once I get home, the house looks like a bomb has gone off and there are no survivors. So I will be cleaning every night this week to get ready for company on Thursday. I kinda wish I could take a day or two off to get everything ready, but that’s not going to happen.

We were in the QCs for Uncle Larry’s funeral, which was just beautiful and he looked really good. I know everyone says that, but he actually did look really good. This was only my third catholic funeral and I really enjoy all the traditions and rituals that are apart of them, though I can live without the smell of the incenses (I have to double my allergy meds). I would like to thank Terry, Kurt, Thad, and Rick for including everyone in the funeral. I never expected to or anticipated in actually get to participate in the funeral, but I am so grateful that I was asked to.
It was very nice to spend time with the family, even though it was under those circumstances. After the service, the church provided a meal for us and it was great. The boys behaved really well for the most part, Jonah was having some problems sharing. Josh’s cousin has a little boy (Isaac) the same age as Jonah. Isaac really wanted to play with Jonah and his trains, well Jonah wanted nothing to do with Isaac touching his trains. No matter how hard we tried to get him to share, he was not going for it. And I swear not more than 10 mins after giving up on them playing together, about 5 girls came over to play with Jonah and he was like “the big man on campus” and they all played with the trains. Then it turned into them chasing him around the room to make him giggle. Only two and already a ladies’ man, I am not sure what I am going to do when he becomes a teen.

While we were there, we got to spend some time with Tim, Meghan and Gabby (aka the future Mrs. Shumaker). Josh actually spent the entire week with them (again thank you for taking in my homeless husband) and he managed to become second daddy to Gabby and she was a replacement for Aiden. We had scheduled a night of Wii and drinking, but since the Iowa game was on (YEAH! Iowa won 55-0) it turned out a little different than we planned. And for the first time since before Jonah was born I was actually drunk, but not a bad drunk just more on the fuzzy fun side (I laugh a lot when I am drunk and then get really sleepy). But we pretty much sat at the kitchen counter or table and talked. I was kinda sad to go back to the hotel, but Jonah was going into super meltdown and Gabby was almost beyond the point of no return. We need to plan a vacation together and actually spend some time together.

So that is a very brief catch up of our lives.

Baking Marathon

Over the weekend I actually got my baking done. YEAH!! I was not really sure if I was going to be able to get everything done, since Jonah was feeling pretty puny and running a fever. So here is the list of stuff I made and yes, I did get a cookie for it

2 batches of sugar cookie dough
1 batch peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips
1 batch peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips
1 batch oatmeal cookies with cinnamon and white chocolate chips
1 batch oatmeal raisin cookies
I officially ran out of brown sugar at this point…. I guess that is a good excuse to bake next weekend too.

I also made banana bread with walnuts,
pumpkin bread with pecans,
homemade applesauce to which my mother was like why?? (I was talking to her on the phone while it was cooking),
and with the homemade applesauce- 4 mini applesauce cake loaves.

I bought the supplies to make pumpkin fudge, but I can’t find my candy thermometer. I know I have seen it since we moved, but I am not sure where. I will find it sometime in the spring, when I actually don’t need it.

I still have to make chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, cheesecake and peppermint bark.

I am on the hunt for an easy peanut butter ball / rum ball recipe, Grandma Annie use to make the best. So if you have one send it my way…please.

So after looking at all of this. Do you see anything I am missing?

Another new family member

This past Thurs. the Shu's welcomed another member to the clan, Adilyn Elizabeth. She is just adorable and looks quite a lot like her mom (sorry Thad). Congrats! and welcome to the family.

Are you sure it was that long ago.....

Last week, I decided to actually check me myspace account and check in on all my friends and family’s pages. A huge surprise to me on my cousin’s page was one of his sisters. I had not talked or seen them in 17 years (the sisters). It is a really long story why and I skip it, but I decided to send a friend request to Dani and she accepted. We talked through myspace email for a couple of days and then we exchanged phone numbers. So I called her on Thursday night and we talked for about 2 hours, just catching up on everything that has happen in the lifetime apart.

I did not realize how much I really missed her; we were really close as kids and were always around each other. I wish our family was still that close. I mean I really felt like we were kids again and staying up past our bedtime at a slumber party. It was great!

While I was talking to her, she gave me Nicky’s phone number and I called her. We talked for 2 ½ hours, before I was too tired and both cordless phones died. Yes, we have two cordless phones and both were fully charged before we started talking…I actually had to find a corded phone…who would have thought that those might actually still exist? J jk So we caught up on everything that has been going on with her.

Then last night, Dani and I talked through myspace IM about memories we had of Uncle Buddy and the silly things we use to do when we were young. We talked about Ka-sha (the dog), the house on Addison, the rabbits in the garage, Uncle Buddy’s recipes (like cabbage and rice; spam, mac and cheese, and tomato sauce combined), and the white and orangish-red truck.

I really miss my cousins. We are going to have to figure out a way to see each other before next summer.

Forget it...I am moving on

Ok, I have officially given up on trying to machine quilt the John Deere quilt. My machine is definitely not capable of it, so I will need to buy a new loop and work on it by hand. With this realization (at 9:30pm last night) I decided to cut out Aiden’s quilt top and begin laying it out. I have some blue plaids from a couple of years that I won from a quilt store in Pendleton, IN and I never could think of anything to do with it. Then, Grandma Annie gave me A LOT of fabric and craft supplies before she passed away (which she had a love of blue fabric. J). So I think I have enough material to create a baby quilt for him. I will post pictures of it once it is completed, which should not take long since it will be totally machine quilted.

Tis the season....to BAKE!

This coming weekend, Josh is flying to San Diego to help his sister. So it is just me and the boys. I have decided that I think we are going to prepare and bake cookies and other holiday treats. Since it is already November and my weekends seem to fly by, I figured that since this weekend was going to be quite, that it is a good time to begin the season. Hey, the commercials have already started and stores are decorated- in Josh’s eyes, I am already late.

I figured that I can take the boys shopping with me on Thursday night to pick up all the supplies that I need and have Jonah help me. Well more like he has his own supplies and just plays. I really need to make an apron for him. This should last about twenty mins. with Thomas and Friends on the TV. J So what are your favorite cookies and when are you going to start baking?

Here is my current list of goodies:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies
Sugar Cookies
Fudge- maybe pumpkin, chocolate, or peanut butter
Banana nut bread
Pie crust

God's Will

Ok, I am going to stop talking about sewing and talk about my fourth favorite man in my life (after Josh, Jonah, and Aiden), my nephew Will. I went to the hospital today at lunch and spent about 40 mins with him and my sister-in-law. Overall his is doing well, but will have surgery on Wed. 11/12, so pray for him and the rest of us. They are hoping that he will not have to have a liver transplant or liver failure before they can get his bowels repaired and functioning. This has been really hard on them and they need a lot of support.

I am amazed at how much he resembles my brother; it is almost like a mini me. He is still small, but he has some fight in him. So I stole a couple pics off of their web pages.

The Giant Elephant In My Sewing Room

This weekend was wonderful. It was relaxing and no rushing around. Friday night, I decided that since I had nothing planned for the weekend it was a good time to breakout the sewing machine and the quilt I have been “working” on for the past 6, yes I said 6, years. I started working on a John Deere themed quilt for Josh, before we ever got married, and I finally have decided that I really need to get it done, so I can justifiably move on to other projects. It really is my giant elephant in my sewing room. I mean the boys need stockings made, we need a tree skirt, I need to make floor quilts for the boys. There is so much to do and not enough time.

So be careful, you just might be getting something “home-made” this year for Christmas.

This poor quilt is a true sign of my beginner status and my over-ambitious goal of starting with a full size quilt. Somehow I have got to figure out how I am going to machine quilt it on my machine.

When I unfolded (more like un-wadded) the quilt, Jonah’s eyes just light up like he just hit the lottery. He looked at it, then at me and said “OH momma, John Deere!”, of course this was in his speak. I asked him if he wanted it on his bed and he smiled and nodded his head, to which Josh quickly replied “That’s mine, I saw it first.” Jonah just gave him a chester cat grin and pulled the quilt up over him. So we will see who will win this battle.

I worked on it a little bit Saturday, before the boys needed my undivided attention and Sunday, I did not touch it. What a great start, uh? Can someone please fill me in on how you can work on sewing projects, work full-time, be a mom to 2 boys 2 and 7 mths, be a wife, try to organize the house and still have sanity??? But then if you knew the answer to this, you would be rich…

Bapples, Pumpkins, and Car Seats

This past weekend we went on a whirlwind tour of Iowa…so for the boys, this was a long weekend in the car seats. We got to the QCs around 11pm (Indiana time) and made a “quick” pit stop at Frank’s Pizza for Italian beef sandwiches and sausage and mushroom pizza. (yummy, my mouth is starting to water just thinking about it). After that snack J, we decided it was time to get the boys to bed….just Jonah did not want to go to bed and he got a little too noisy at the hotel and we………GOT A CALL from the front desks about the noise. Oooppps! Sorry to whoever was below us. But do you blame the kid, 6 hours in a car seat and a powernap to boot…

Saturday, we went to surprise Aunt Peggy (she did not know we were coming for her birthday) and go to the apple orchard with her and Casey. It was pretty cold and windy, but we had fun. We first went to Thompson, IL to a road side stand (1hr in car seats), then we went to a General Store in Clinton, IA…it was like to largest junk store full of old crap, but it was neat. Jen- It still smelled the same J We then headed back to Hampton, IL to have a chicken and dumplings dinner at Grandma’s old church, but when we got there they had a hour and half wait….Thought going through my head at this point….ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!....Since Josh, the boys and I had to be at Tim and Meghan’s by 6:30, we decided to skip eating there and would stop at Wendy’s on the way. It was really nice to see everyone and get to spend a little time with them…Congrats, Nicole (hope everything is going well).

Saturday night, we met with Tim, Meghan and Crabby Gabby (those she was not really that bad) for the Bettendorf Halloween parade. Which we all had a great time and to watch three grownups chase after candy in the street was pretty funny. Though we have decided that we will always be in that spot, Jonah left with a grocery sack full of candy. We had to dump the pumpkin out twice before the parade was over. The funny thing was Jonah made all assumptions that the bag was his, so every time someone touched it in the van, he would start screaming “MINE!, MINE!, MINE!”. After the parade, we went back to their house and played a little Wii, which Josh and I decided that we want one. Once Jonah started having several meltdowns, we decided it was time to go back to the hotel.

Sunday, was a long day… Aiden decided 4:45am was the perfect time to get Mom up, but we had to leave by 7am to get home. I was able to get everything packed up, the kids changed, and Jonah feed, before Josh even got out of bed. It was a successful morning, we left the hotel at 7, went to Sonic to grab breakfast, and off we went. We made a couple stops on the way home, but we made it back to Indy at 1pm. We went and picked up my mom, then headed to Noblesville to catch the Pumpkin Train which was a part of Jonah’s birthday. The Pumpkin train is a passenger train that goes to a pumpkin patch about 30 mins away. It was really great, though cold and windy. Jonah got to go into the engine and look around, they had a petting zoo, a hay bale maze, and of course…pumpkins. Jonah was so proud to pick out his own pumpkin and carry it around. We spent about an hour at the patch and then got back on the train and head to the station.

Oh…..what a weekend.

A new cousin

Well, this past Wednesday, William Matthew was born at 4:12am weighing in at 5 lbs, 5 oz and 18” long. He will be in the NICU for about 4-6 weeks and then home, so it will be a little while before the boys can see him. But after surgery he is doing very well.

Pics, Pics, and more Pics

Since I have been bad about not posting any new pictures of the boys, I have decided to overwhelm you. :) Happy Looking!

Bubby, you did not tell me that trains were scratch and taste....ummmm, bananas.